Il Calice spezzato
Publisher: SUSALIBRI
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Turin, Italy
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 255
Table of contents: title: Jean Baptist Nansél chose a hermit's life since his adolescence; he retired into a cave on the high and wild mountains of Queyras, southward Embrun, important diocese ruled by the Bishop-Prince Aymon.; title: Nansél grew old in solitude, and unexpectedly receives the crowning achievement of a lifetime's dream: a Holy Relic, offered to him by an astonishing beautiful woman who can appear and disappear to his sight.; title: But the Relic, a Chalice - The Holy Chalice - is a tempting prize for many people, first of all Bishop Aymon, who puts the hermit in prison - and falls seriously ill.; title: Amboise de Montsalvy rushes to try and save him; as usual, he is escorted by young Artemisia, Colin Bois the mercenary captain, and Illait from Isley, holder of the Druids' ancient wisdom.; title: They are involved into a situation where nothing is like it seems: Nansél is just an instrument, and the mysterious apparition is very different from what the hermit thinks.; title: Out of devotion, the wolf-hunters of Queyras set him free, holding Artemisia, Colin and Illait as hostages; this coup de main tightens the first knot into a net woven a long time before - involving Soinette, teenager daughter of Risoul the Wolf, the hunters' leader.; title: The wonderful woman does exist in flesh and blood: she is Maude de Belley, forced first by her family to become an abbess, then forced to leave the convent of Sainte Madaleine in Vezeley - by Illait, whom she plans to bind to herself, forever.; title: Illait and Maude join battle, running through forests and snow-covered mountains, plunging into the young Druid's past and into a timeless place where anything can - or cannot - be real. It's a fight amongst the luminous and the shadowy sides of the Power - the same power that Illait and Maude possess - making them both persecuted into a world by now laboriously converted to Christianity.; title: Struggles don't spare even innocent people like Nansél, but the story shall end in a surprising way, with a great hope.; title: Nothing is like it seems.; title: Not for Bishop-Prince Aymon d'Embrun, who can please his people and himself with a false Relic, not for Maude, Artemisia and Soinette, the women who own the thin spark of Illait's life.; title: Light and darkness can merge, and then darkest shadow can become light. And bring Regeneration.